Our Favorite this weeks features Jane Austen, but includes literature from several eras. The UK’s Telegraph has put together a slide show they’re calling the 30 great opening lines in literature. Which one is your favorite?
Category: Friday Favorites
Friday Favorite: British Men Poetry & Prose
My good friend Emily shared this with me earlier in the week, and I haven’t been the same since 🙂
For your listening pleasure, this week’s Favorite is a playlist put together by 8tracks user SADarcy. It includes a Pride and Prejudice excerpt read by Matthew Macfaddyen, Several Shakespeare sonnets read by David Tennant, and an excerpt of North and South read by Richard Armitage. Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch also feature prominently, and Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman make appearances as well.
Ready?
Listen here.
See the full list of poems and excerpts here.
Enjoy!
Friday Favorite: HMS Acasta Letters at the Jane Austen Festival
Ever want to get involved in a historical reenactment but didn’t know how? Or think you didn’t have time for all the preparation? Afraid you’ll get stage fright and forget what to do?
Then here’s a simple opportunity to participate in the Jane Austen Festival in Kentucky without all the hassle or expense of travel–write a historical letter to a Royal Navy sailor!
From the HMS Acasta website:
“Open Call to ALL Reenactors, Historians and Creative Writers!
The Royal Navy reenacting group that represents HMS Acasta will be attending the Jane Austen Festival in July of this year. One of the things that I’d like to be able to do is deliver a ‘mail packet’ full of letters to the various Acasta members. This is a project that I have undertaken in the past with other groups with awesome results.
This is where YOU come in!
Anyone who would like to submit a period correct letter to add to the packet is encouraged to do so! We’d love to have your contribution, however large or small! Anything added to the packet will help to enhance the historical experience for not only the Acastas who receive them, but for the public who will attend the Festival as well.”
There are ideas, links to examples of period-style letters, and specific sailors to write to on the Acasta website. Deadline is the end of June 2014.
Friday Favorite: Fictional Libraries
Ever watch a movie or TV show and get caught up in the scenery? What if that scenery is books?
Our Favorite this week comes from the website Flavorwire. They’ve made a list of the top ten fictional libraries, including Beast’s library from the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.
Is your favorite on the list?
Friday Favorite: Adopt-a-Book
What happens to rare manuscripts when they become old and begin to fall apart? They get restored! And now you can get in on the action.
From the Goodreads Voice article, 3/3/14:
With the Smithsonian Libraries, home to more than 50,000 rare books, you can select a specific book to “adopt” from the active list of books in need of restoration. Among the items currently up for adoption, you’ll find historic manuscripts from the 1700s and 1800s, and the list is always changing.
Across the pond you can help the Adopt-a-book program at the British Library preserve more than 1,800 works every year.
And Australian book lovers can support rare works in the University of Adelaide’s collection.
Many regional branches also offer adopt-a-book programs, so ask your local librarian for a suggestion!
Friday Favorite: DeviantArt Regency Dress Up Doll
A few months ago, I shared Isobel Carr’s article on Regency-era paper dolls. This week’s Favorite is the 21st Century version.
Created by Sarah Vaughn (aka savivi) for DeviantArt, Regency Dress Up Doll is basically an electronic version of the old paper doll. The outfits and their accessories are all inspired by Jane Austen’s novels and the moves they spawned. You can change facial features and hair styles, too!
And if you prefer Ken to Barbie, the same artist has a Regency Hero Dress Up Doll…with period accurate underclothing 😀
Friday Favorites: Prue Batten’s Guy of Gisborne
I write Regency romances, but I also adore medieval novels–and this week’s Favorite is a series I can’t seem to get enough of. Based on an alternate history where Guy of Gisborne looks like Richard Armitage and has nothing to do with Robin Hood, Prue Batten’s Gisborne series is one of my favorite medieval stories. She saw the good in a “bad guy” (if you’ll pardon the pun) and gave him a chance to be the hero, with wonderful results!
Read here about the evolution of Prue’s version of Guy of Gisborne. Click on the pictures to learn more about each book.
Friday Favorites: The Waltz with David Tennant
Happy Valentine’s Day! How many of you are going dancing with your sweetheart this weekend? Or have read about a glorious waltz at a Regency Valentine’s ball?
How many of you have actually danced the waltz?
For those of you that haven’t, here’s a look at the modern process. Actors David Tennant and Jessica Hynes learn together for a scene in Doctor Who.
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And here’s a look at the finished product, set in England just before the beginning of the First World War.
Friday Favorite: Georgian Jewelry
This week’s Friday Favorite is a haven for history lovers and jewelry enthusiasts of all stripes. The Three Graces is an online jewelry store specializing in authentic period jewelry (including Georgian and Regency-era pieces), along with modern jewelry that reproduces or is inspired by pieces from the past. Here’s just one example:
“Halley’s Comet jewelry is usually in the form of a small brooch almost always 1-1/4 inches (3.2 cm) or less in length. This fabulous jewel is a pair of matched earrings with that motif. Each of the fiery 10k yellow gold comets sport two (2) faceted natural garnets in crimped collet mounts. Typically Georgian in construction, the gems are foiled and set closed back.
Date: Circa 1835.”
For more period jewelry pieces, visit The Three Graces website.
For more information on Halley’s Comet jewelry, check out this post by Kyra Elliott for the Pennington Planetarium in Louisiana. Or this one at Art of Mourning.
Friday Favorite: Greenwood’s Map of London, 1827
Our Favorite this week is a resource I’ve used countless times, both as a writer and a reader. It’s a clickable, interactive map of London originally published in 1827 and based on a survey of the city that took the previous two years. The scale is eight inches per mile, so the detail is amazing. And Bath Spa University (who hosts this particular version) has done a phenomenal job digitizing the map–you can zoom in several times and still get a beautifully clear picture.
Click the picture for more information:
Cora Lee, Regency Romance Author 